How to Prepare Your Child for the Upcoming SA2 Exams

You may not want to believe this but the SA2 exams are coming up soon.

Instead of leaving things to the last minute, and increasing the stress levels of you and your child, you may wish to begin thinking about how to tackle the revision that needs to be done.

Here are 5 exam tips for you to try out at home!

#1 Put together a feasible study plan

As the popular saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Think about the amount of time your child has each week after accounting for the time spent on homework, extra classes, and enrichment classes. Sit down with your child to schedule on a calendar the various subjects and topics that will need to be covered.

Depending on the age and maturity of your child, let him decide when he will tackle Math, Science, English, and Chinese. You may also wish to highlight certain topics that he may be struggling with and allocate more time to revise those.

(If you don’t have a relatively large physical calendar, you may wish to print out an empty monthly calendar for this planning exercise.)

#2 Keep it varied and interesting

You may think that it’s better for your child to focus on his weak spots and keep drilling away at those. But this can also backfire by killing whatever motivation he has left for the subject.

For instance, instead of doing a hundred MCQ for Science, think about using videos or science magazines like Science Adventures or The Young Scientists. If your child likes to draw, get him to map out or summarise a topic by creating a chart or mind map.

If it’s a language subject, such as Chinese, you can watch child-friendly videos on Toggle, such as The Story of Nao Nao, or read a comic book, apart from revising the textbook and spelling lists.

#3 Keep distractions at bay

Children may struggle with keeping their eyes and hands off digital devices, and understandably so, since we live in a digitally-rich environment. When they are trying to do research on the computer, their minds may wander to the latest online games they’ve been playing.

If you’re not around to keep an eye on them, you may wish to set some ground rules for revision time. If your child has trouble keeping to the limits set, think about installing a parental control app like OurPact or Google Family.

#4 Review past information a day, a week, and a month later

Research shows that periodically reviewing new information you’ve learnt helps to move that information from short-term to long-term memory. Instead of cramming the entire subject over 2 days, it is a lot more effective to break up the studying over a few weeks. This way, your child can focus on certain topics, and attempt to draw associations or categorise the information meaningfully – which aids in long-term memory retention.

#5 Provide a nutritional boost

With the exams around the corner, do your best to ensure that your child sleeps well, plays well, and eats well.

If you want to boost his nutritional intake, you may wish to try BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken for Children. BRAND’S® Essence of Chicken isproven to enhance concentration and working memory by improving blood flow to the brain, and reduce stress hormones, making it the perfect companion for the stressful exam period.

It now has a new variant that is enhanced with lycium or goji berries, which are packed with antioxidants and help to protect the eyes.

It also increases your child’s metabolic rate, which in turn provides your child with added energy to tackle his study plan.

With these 5 tips in mind, you’ll be able to support your child to be disciplined in his revision efforts, and they’ll also be better positioned to perform in the upcoming exams.